CURRENTS: MINIATURE DÉCOR; The Little House That Came Home

By GERIT QUEALY

Published: April 27, 2006

''People often refer to Kew Palace as a giant doll's house,'' said Lee Prosser, the curator of historic buildings who oversees it, so maybe it's appropriate that when the palace -- George III's residence in the London borough of Richmond -- was shut down 10 years ago for renovations, one of the most serendipitous discoveries was a child-size version of Kew made for the king's daughters by a carpenter on the Royal Yacht in about 1780. Susanne Groom, a curator at the palace, which reopens to the public today, learned of it while lecturing at a local education group. A woman in the audience had seen the miniature house in a 1995 auction. As it turned out, it had been in storage for years at Kentshire Galleries in Manhattan, where Fred Imberman, the co-owner, had tried to sell it several times. ''We always knew what we had,'' he said. ''By sitting on our hands, so to speak, it ended up in the right place.''

When the dollhouse found its way home in 2004, Ms. Groom said, ''The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.'' Chocolate baseboards, velvet bell pulls, green wallpaper -- even the open-back chairs and miniature bed -- all echoed the palace's d?r, confirming the accuracy of the restoration. ''Fifteen years of research,'' Ms. Groom said, ''and everything that I'd been reading about was there in the house.'' GERIT QUEALY

Photos (Photographs by Historic Royal Palaces/News Team International)